


What Lies Beneath the Surface

by MidnightWriter44678



Category: Astro Boy (2009), Astro Boy 1980, Tetsuwan Atom | Astro Boy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2019-11-23 08:52:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18149732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightWriter44678/pseuds/MidnightWriter44678
Summary: What would have happened if Astro had stayed on the Surface longer? What would have happened if Stone didn't find him right away? what would the story be like if Astro was forced to work in the Robot Games for longer? A story based on the 2009 movie, with elements from the 2003 and 1980 shows. Cora needs to get back to Hamegg's circus, and Astro just wants a new life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, I'm back with a new story! This idea has been rattling around in my mind for a while and I was finally able to get it down in words, so I figured I would share. I hope you all enjoy it, feel free to leave constructive criticism, and comments and likes are always welcome!

Cora was lost. Completely and utterly lost. She hated to admit it, but she honestly had no idea where she was. She looked around aimlessly at the towering junk piles all around her, rusting metal and dead robots consuming her vision. Hamegg and the circus had just settled onto the Surface below Metro City, and her, Zane and the twins were told to go out and find parts for his newest robots for the Robot games after the circus shows. She hadn't been very enthusiastic about it, but agreed because it seemed like the better option than cleaning the porta potties.

Looking around again, she thought that the cleaning duty sounded like the better option. Her and the kids had been searching for parts when a heap of robots and scrap metal fell out of the sky and flung them apart. Cora was just unfortunate enough to take a tumble down a steep ravine. It looked like it used to be some sort of dam before the lake it used to hold dried up, leaving it barren and chalky. She had taken quite the tumble down it, surprisingly only receiving a few scraps on her knees, elbows and shoulders. She was lucky she didn't break any bones.

When she had gotten up several minutes after the fall, groaning and dusting herself off, she realized that there was no way she was going to be able to climb back up the thirty foot slope. She had waited for a couple hours to see if Zane and the twins brought help, but when the sun started setting and no one came, she figured that Hamegg didn’t care enough to come and get her and she was left for dead. She was angry, but had expected it, to an extent. She got up and started wandering down the ravine to see if the was a way out of the steep walls.

She had been walking for several hours before she came across a groove that allowed her to exit the dark ravine and into the last light of the setting sun. That was nearly an hour ago, and the sunlight was almost completely gone now. It was getting cold and she had nowhere to sleep for the night. She was so far away from the circus that there was no way she was going to just stumble back home for the night, and she was hungry. To say she was frustrated would be an understatement.

“Aaahhhgg!” She shouted, kicking an old robot head in her frustration. What she hadn’t expected was for someone to answer her shout with a shout of their own.

“AHHH!” She heard coming from around the junk pile she was standing next to. Another shout followed it, the odd sound of metal grinding together reaching her hears. A metallic voice was speaking, but she was just too far away to actually understand the words. She made her way cautiously around the mountain of metal to see a figure stumbling around at the top of a pile of scrap metal a fair distance from her. She watched in slight shock as the figure was crowded by dysfunctioning robots, the metal beings clinging to the figure as if they were trying to tear it apart. The figure jerked away from them, pulling an arm off of one of the older modeled robots, but before anyone could do anything else, the metallic voice was back, shouting something that caused all of the robots and the figure looked up, just in time to see a pile of trash drop out of the sky on top of them. The robots were crushed, while the figure went flying, tumbling head over heels down the metal pile and skidding to a painful looking stop at the bottom.

She winced, having full sympathy for what appeared to be a young boy at the bottom of the pile. Deciding that he seemed to be struggling to get up, she started to make her way over to the kid. He looked to be around her again, maybe thirteen or fourteen. He finally rose to his feet, holding his left shoulder, which seemed to be sagging slightly, she wondered absently if it was dislocated. She got closer to him as he sat down on a small mound of metal, seemingly gazing at metro city in the distance. She heard him sigh.

“What do I do?” She jumped slightly, thinking for a moment that he had spotted her and was speaking to her, but she quickly realized that he had been talking to himself. Unfortunately, her slight startle had caused a little more noise than she had intended, and the boy whipped around to look at her, jumping to his feet.

“wh-who are you?” The boy stuttered out, taking a step back. He seemed really skittish, like he was preparing to leap into the skies and fly away. She nearly snorted at the thought.

“The name’s Cora, and you are?” The kid seemed to relax a little bit, before he tensed again, eyes widening. The reaction was startling, but before she could even think, there was a loud groan of metal bending unnaturally, and she looked up to see the mountain of trash she was standing next to tower over her like a twisted tidal wave.

“Look out!” She heard the kid shout. She didn't even have time to scream before strong arms wrapped around her waist, pushing her back and out of the way as the mountain came tumbling down with a thunderous crash. She landed on her back, hard. The boy was on top of her, arms still gripping her sides with surprising strength for his size. She groaned slightly, the air having been knocked out of her on impact with the scrap covered ground. The boy scrambled off of her, sitting on his knees next to her legs, seeming to be looking her over as she blinked the stars out of her eyes.

“Are you ok?” He asked her, fingers fidgeting, acting like he was holding himself back from patting her down for injuries. She groaned again, pushing herself up on an elbow, holding her head with her other hand. She blinked, looking at the landslide of trash that had devoured the spot she had been standing in only moment ago. I nearly died. The realization made her head spin. She looked over to the worried boy next to her, and found that he was still looking over her almost frantically. 

“You just saved my life.” It was cliche, said a thousand times in romance movies, but in that moment, she was in shock and that was the first thing to come to mind, slipping out of her mouth before she could even think about it. The boy stopped his twitching, turning to look her straight in the eye. He blinked and looked at the spot they had been standing in, then turning back to her he gave her a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeah, I guess I did.” Then he became serious again, worry taking over his expression. “Are you alright? You’re not hurt, are you?” Cora just stared at him, blinking dumbly. Then her mind decided to start functioning again and she shook her head to clear it.

“Uh, yeah, yeah I'm fine.” She stood, wobbling slightly for a moment. She brushed her clothes off, even though they were dirty and ripped, making the act pointless. “Thanks for the save.” The kid looked a bit doubtful, but stood up as well, massaging his left shoulder once again.

“Yeah, no problem, I’m just glad I was fast enough.” He said, chuckling nervously towards the end of the sentence. Cora suddenly felt like she was missing something, like a part of the story didn’t line up. She looked back towards to pile of trash, running over the terrifying event in her mind. How did this kid move fast enough to save her. He was several feet away from her when they were talking, there is no way he should have been able to make it to her in time. He would have had to fly to get to her fast enough.

She turned to him, about to question him on the impossible rescue, but was stopped by the sight of the sunset behind him. The sun was completely gone, only a faint glow lighting the sky in pinks and oranges. Panic quickly rose to her throat. It was nearly dark and she didn't have any kind of shelter, nor water or food. While the Surface was sweltering hot during the day, it often reached freeing temperatures during the night. She would freeze to death if she didn't find a shelter of some sort, and fast.

“Well thanks again for the save, but it’s getting dark so I need to get going.” The boy looked startled, turning to the sky to see it quickly darkening. His nervous fidgeting came back, but she didn't have time to worry about that. She turned and started crawling over the trash, moving in the opposite direction from where she came. A moment later she heard a rustling behind her.

“He-hey Cora, right? Um, I’m kinda lost, could I maybe tag along with you for a while?” The kid voiced behind her, stuttering slightly, clearly unsure about the question. Cora stopped and turned to him. Normally she would be very cautious of strangers, especially people from this part of the surface, but this kid was rather disarming. She looked him over, his big brown eyes full of cautious hope. After a long moment, she shrugged, turning back around to continue forward.

“Yeah sure, why not.” She heard a relieved sigh and then the kid started to scramble to catch up with her. “I don’t think I caught your name, kid.” The boy froze next to her, suddenly looking sheepish again.

“I, uh, I don’t currently have a name.” Cora stopped to look at him again, skeptical.

“What do you mean you don’t have a name?” He looked downright depressed, shrugging his shoulders and looking at his shoes.

“Well, turns out I’m not who I thought I was, and it doesn’t feel right to use a name that is not mine, so I currently don’t have a name.” Cora could understand that. She had changed her name when she joined Hamegg’s circus, not wanting her old identity to follow her into her new life. Though that was an odd way of wording it. What does he mean that he isn’t who he thought he was? Using a name that wasn’t his? She decided to leave it be for the time being, tucking the thought in the back of her mind.

“Alright, so what do you wanna be called then?” she asked, starting to move again, the kid quickly following. 

“Um, I don’t really know, I’ve never really thought about it before.”

“You don’t have any nicknames you could use?”

“No, not really.” Cora sighed, looking around her in the dimming light. Her eyes landed on a broken robot energizing pod. The glass dome shattered, leaving glittering daggers rising from the rectangular frame. The metal was dented and rusting, but in shining silver letters, a portion of the companies name shone in the last of the sunlight. She smiled, and pointed at it to draw the kids attention.

“What about that?” She asked, feeling triumphant already. She looked over her shoulder to the boy, making sure he saw what she was pointing at. He was looking at the shining word with curiosity, seeming to mumble it to himself a couple times before a small smile spread over his face. He turned to her, eyes glimmering with new found excitement.

“I like it.” He said. “Call me Astro.”


	2. Chapter 2

Astro felt lost. He had literally lost everything in a matter of hours. His father, his home, even his humanity. He had no idea where to go or what to do, and if all the robots acted like those junkies on the trash pile, then his life had just became extremely dangerous. Though, he felt a little safer being around another person. Cora had an odd confidence that made him feel like everything was going to be alright. Though, he wasn't sure how she would react to the fact that he was a robot, he hadn't had a very good experience with humans so far. He was afraid he would be rejected again.

“Gah!” Cora gasped as her hands slipped on loose ruble and she tumbled backward. She landed hard on Astro, slamming into his chest as he instinctively caught her. He let off a soft grunt before gently reaching under her arms and effortlessly lifted her to her feet.

“You okay?” He asked, checking her from head to toe for injuries with his eyes. Not finding any new ones, beyond the couple of scrapes and bruises she had when they met, he looked up at her to find her staring at him. Suddenly feeling flustered for no reason, he squirmed under her gaze. “What?”

“How’d you do that?” She asked, now looking him up and down, as if searching for something that wasn’t there. Now he was just confused. What was she talking about? What did he do that wasn’t normal?

“What?” He repeated, a confused expression taking over his face. Cora stared for a moment longer, then blink and shook her head softly

“Never mind, it was nothing, you’re just a lot stronger than you look.” She turned and started to climb over the juck again, reaching the top of the pile a moment later and sliding down the other side, out of view. Astro looked down at his hand, moving his fingers one by one. Guess I’m stronger than I thought, I barely even noticed that she weighed anything. He glanced back up at the top of the hill, sighing as he scurried up it and down the other side to follow Cora. I’m gonna have to be more careful with that.

“Hey Cora, where are we going anyway?” The darkness had set in quickly after they had started walking, and he was starting to get nervous, especially with that weird buzzing that he swore was following them. He kept glancing over his shoulder, but was unable to see anything in the dim moonlight. He wanted more than anything to turn on his eye beams and search the area, but he refused to lose this kind girl that quickly. So instead, he settled for following close behind her and making sure that she didn’t fall and break her neck in the dark.

“Well, I’m heading home to Hamegg’s Robot Circus. You are welcome to leave at any point.” She grunted at the end of the sentence, stumbling over a particularly large piece of trash. He reached out to catch her again, but was startled when she let out a scream, yanking his hands back in fear that he was the sudden cause of her distress. She fell over on her side, clutching her shin and gritting her teeth. Astro gasped and threw himself down next to her, hand hovering over her anxiously, but too afraid to touch her.

“What happened? What's wrong?” He asked frantically, eyes skimming over her in fear.

“I think I just cut my leg on scrap metal.” She ground out through her teeth. She pried her eyes open to examine her leg, though was unable to see anything, forced to go off of what she could feel rather than what she could see. “That feels like a lot of blood.”

“Okay, it's gonna be fine.” Astro said, though whether he was ensuring Cora or himself, he wasn't sure. “Let me see it.” He said, wrapping his fingers around her's and gently pulling them away. He sighed in relief once he saw the cut. It was actually really shallow, from what he could tell, but it was long, maybe the length of his hand, and wasn't actually bleeding all that much.

“Okay, it’s not actually that deep and is barely bleeding.” He stated, gently pulling the fabric of her pant leg away so he could see it better. She sighed below him.

“I'm guessing that it just hurts this much because of the location.” She hissed when his fingers got a little too close and he quickly pulled away, watching as she sat up. She examined her leg, face shrouded in darkness so he couldn't see her expression. A moment later she ripped a shred of fabric from her ragged skirt, tying it around the cut in a makeshift bandage. With a huff, she got to her feet, avoiding putting pressure on her injured leg, and she started to limp away from him in the direction they had been going, skirting her way around the metal that had cut her in the first place. “Come on Astro, we need to keep going.”

“What?” He jumped to his feet, racing up behind her then flipping around and walking backward in front of her. “I think it is way too dark at this point, and we are just going to keep getting hurt if we keep going like this. We should just find a place to rest for the night and then keep going when the sun comes out.” He said, worried thoughts consuming his mind, everything from the temperature dropping and Cora starting to shiver to disinfecting her leg before it got an infection or tetanus. 

For a minute it looked like the girl was going to argue. She opened her mouth, face set in defiance, but then she stepped wrong and tumbled forward. Astro lunged forward and grabbed her before she fell, picking her up again and noticing that her shivering had gotten worse. She seemed to notice this too, because she sighed again and nodded her head.

“Fine, fine, we'll stop for tonight and find a place to sleep.” She then proceeded to look around blindly in the darkness. “Um, how are we going to find somewhere to sleep without being able to see?” AStro also looked around, hoping more than anything that they would be lucky and find some sort of alcove to hide in for the night. That weird humming sound was back, and it was starting to make him nervous, well, more nervous. Especially since Cora didn’t seem to hear it. He glanced around again, somewhat expecting something to jump out and try to tear them apart. Luckily, nothing attacked, but he did notice the slight darkening of the shadows at the edge of one of the trash piles a distance away from them. He wasn’t sure, but from the angle they were at, it almost looked like the mouth of an overhang.

“Hey Cora, do you see that?” He asked, pointing at the shadow he had spotted.

“Um, no, what are you even trying to show me?” He turned back to see Cora squinting, as if it would help her see better in the blackness.

“Well, it almost looks like an overhang.” He stated, sounding more sure of himself than he actually felt. Cora seemed to perk up at this, making a greater effort to see what he was talking about, but still clearly struggling. Well, add better eyesight to the list of differences between me and humans.

“Well, I can’t see it, but it is worth the time to go check it out.” Cora waved her hand in a wide sweeping motion I front of her, nodding slightly and looking at him with that searching look again, like he was some sort of puzzle that she needed to figure out. “Lead the way, Wonder Boy.” The nickname made something buzz in his chest, almost like a heartbeat. This made his chest constrict, leaving him with a sudden longing for something as simple as a heart beating in his chest. He had to quickly shut the thought down, shoving it to the back of his mind, because he could not break down here, not now. He couldn’t let those dark thoughts and insecurities spread through his mind. Shaking the sudden cold, hollow feeling way, he nodded and started making his way down the hill they were standing on and heading towards the supposed overhang.

That is, until he heard Cora gasp behind him. He turned around just in time for Cora to smash into him again, this time with enough force to send them both tumbling down the junk pile. They landed painfully at the bottom, a writhing pile of flailing limbs. It took them a minute to untangle and get to their feet, and they were both extremely flustered whey they finally did. After a while of awkward silence, COra cleared her throat.

“Do we agree to pretend that never happened?”

“Agreed.” They both nodded, still not looking each other in the eye. It took awhile, but they finally made it to their destination. They were both ecstatic to see that it actually was an alcove, though it was smaller than they expected. It was a rounded indent in the pile of old parts and unwanted garbage, just big enough for both of them to climb into and opening up a little bit towards the inside, like some sort of metallic cave. Astro went in first, doing a quick check to make sure that it wouldn’t collapse and kill them in their sleep. When it proved safe, Cora practically dove in, plopping down and collapsing with a big sigh. She stretched for a moment before curling up, obviously exhausted. Astro sat next to her, knees to his chest and watching her out of the corner of his eye as he gazed at the dim moonlight just outside of the makeshift shelter. The humming had faded again, and he was almost as nervous about that as he was about the sound getting louder. They stayed in silence for such a long time that Astro thought Cora had fallen asleep, when a soft voice pierced the quiet atmosphere.

“I’m glad I met you Astro, I have a feeling that we are going to go on quiet the adventure together.” Astro was slightly startled, but he smiled into the darkness as a strange fluttering sensation filled his chest.

“Yeah me too, Cora, me too.” A soft sigh was his only answer, and they were quiet again. Though he was glad it was so quiet, because if it wasn’t, he probably would have missed the nearly silent “good night” that Cora whispered, slipping into the land of dreams. He smiled again, glancing over to her still form. He noticed that she was still shivering, and made a decision that he would later blame on delirium. He unzipped his jacket, taking it off, and carefully draped it over the girl as best as he could. “Good night, Cora.” He whispered, before settling down and falling asleep himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Cora woke to the sun shining on her feet through the mouth of their shelter. It took her mind a moment to process what was going on and where she was, but when it did, she groaned. Then she realized that there was something rather soft draped over her, something she most definitely did not fall asleep with. It was far too soft to be something she owned, all of her clothes being rough and worn. She sat up quickly with the realization, looking down at the crumpled blue fabric piled in her lap. Astro’s jacket, but why did he give it to me? She then look over a the boy’s sleeping form, his back facing her. Her mind immediately went to her life with the other orphans. With them it was almost always survival of the fittest, and once you were old enough to take care of yourself you we responsible for yourself. No one shared when it didn't benefit them in some way. No one gave up their small amounts of comfort unless they absolutely had to. And yet, this kid gave her his jacket on a freezing cold night, without her even having to bargain for it. An odd warm feeling filled her chest, confusing her for a moment before she shook it away. He is going to get himself killed if he doesn’t start taking care of himself before others.

She rose to her feet, rolling the jacket into a ball in her hands. She then proceed to walk over and roughly kick the kid in the back. It didn’t quite get the reaction she was hoping for. Astro grunted, opening his eyes slightly while trying to adjust to the bright light. In return, Cora felt like she had just kicked a brick wall with all her might. Her foot throbbed, and she gritted her teeth, hoping not to show that that had actually hurt. The boy turned and looked up at her, but his expression changed quickly, going from a lazy sleepiness to concern right before her eyes.

“Um, are you okay?” He asked cautiously. She just stared down at him for a moment. Did he even feel that? What does this kid eat?! Realizing that he was still staring at her and she hadn’t given an answer, she huffed and threw his jacket at his face.

“You’re gonna freeze to death if you give away your clothes.” She stated, crossing her arms as he spluttered, pulling the jacket off his face with a confused look. “You’re just lucky that I’m nice enough to give it back, not many people would do that.” He rolled his eyes, getting to his feet and tying the jacket around his waist.

“You were cold, I wasn’t, I thought you would appreciate the extra coverage.” She just stared at him, blinking as she tried to comprehend what she just heard.

“Look, I don’t know where you came from, but around here, it’s every person for themselves, and it will do you well to remember that. Kindness is going to get you killed in a dark alley somewhere.” She turned around and was crawling out of the mouth of the shelter so she didn’t see him cringe, but she did hear his response.

“I’m from Metro City, and I do realize that I need to be careful, but I don’t feel like my kindness is going to get me killed.” Cora whipped around to look at him as he crawled out of the hole and stood. Disgust rolled around her insides, and anger boiled in her chest. Metro City kid, no wonder he doesn’t seem to know how to function down here. He is probably a pampered little brat like all the rest of the people up there. When he stood, she plastered a fake smile on her face.

“You’re from Metro City?” She gasped in an overly cheerful way, watching as the boy’s face morphed in confusion. “Oh my goodness, it is such an honor to be in your presence, I can’t believe you are talking to me, this is the best day of my life.” She ended on a low sarcastic note, making sure that her face and voice displayed her displeasure. He just stared at her, confused. She sighed.

“Let me spell it out to you. You’re from Metro city, I don’t like people from Metro city.” she leaned back, crossing her arms and glared at the boy. He still seemed confused, but he rolled his eyes at her. Of all the nerve….

“Yes, you made it clear you don’t like people from Metro City, but I don’t see why that suddenly changes anything. We were getting along just fine so far, and I haven’t done anything wrong to you.” He looked at her with a quizzical look, and she huffed. Leaning forward, one hand on her hip and the other with its finger in his face.

“It’s not what you have done, it is what you might do. I don’t want your problems following me, so get lost kid.” She then turned around and began to storm off. She heard a gasp behind her, and frantic footsteps, but she didn’t stop.

“Wait, please, I won’t cause you any trouble, I promise!” Astro said frantically, dashing up and walking backward in front of her again.

“Promises mean nothing down here, so get lost before I make you.” She kept walking, walking around him as he stumbled and fell on his rear.

“Please, I don’t have anywhere to go!” His voice was starting to sound thick, like he was on the brink of tears. Wimp she thought to herself.

“Not my problem.” She grumbled. This time he ran in front of her and stopped her in her tracks. His voice was thick and his face was twisted like he was getting emotionally worked up, but his skin was still pale, and his eyes dry and clear, as if they hadn't gotten the emotional memo. Is he trying to play me? She wondered, but her thoughts were cut off when he continued.

“Please, I’m begging. I literally lost everything in one fell swoop.” Something in her expression must have made him think that she didn’t believe him, which she really didn’t, and so he continued. “My dad disowned me, I was kicked out of my house, lost my humanity, was chased by some lunatics with huge guns for no reason, thrown off of the city and attacked by a pack of malfunctioning robots as soon as I opened my eyes.” He said all of this in one, long breath. And hearing this made her feel guilty, because it sounded close to her story, except a lot worse, but he continued before she could say anything. “So this may sound stupid, or childish, or whatever you wanna call it, but I just really don’t want to be alone again. I don’t know if I will be able to survive on my own down here, and I could really use some help, even if that is just a little bit of company and a destination to look forward to.”

He finally stopped, staring at her for some sort of reaction. She felt like someone poured cold motor oil in her brain, clogging her gears and slowing her down. One odd point stuck out to her, though, and she couldn’t possibly decipher what it meant.

“Did you just say that you lost your humanity?” She asked, totally baffled. She watched as the boy cringed, clearly not having meant to mention that. He opened his mouth to reply, whether to confirm or deny she wasn't sure, but was interrupted by a metallic clang. They both startled and turned to look at a rusting robot that stood at the top of a hill they had crawled over the night before. It stood on uneven legs, like it had stolen a leg that was a little too short for it from a different robot, which would explain the color difference. It had dents all throughout its body, with wires sticking out of random holes in its frame. One arm was far shorter than the other, a hand attracted where the elbow should be, and the other ended in a large meat cleaver, obviously implying that the thin red robot had been a chef bot in its prime. Two more robots appeared over the rig of the hill, one a small, wiry toilet cleaning robot, the other, a six foot tall construction robot with a cement tumbler for a chest and bulky arms covered in a light grey dust.

“Ahhh, there you are.” The chef bot graveled out, its voice sounding like forks in a bender. “Come on brother, spare a little juice for the old folk around here.” Several more robots climbed over the top of the hill, waddling towards them like metal zombie, moaning about new batteries. Cora was stupefied, she had never in all her life seen robots react this way to humans. she turned to Astro to see fear warping his soft face. She cleared her throat and Astro turned to look at her.

“You got any batteries to give them?” She asked, already knowing the answer.

“Nope.”

“We should probably run then.”

“Agreed.” And with that they both turned and bolted. Astro ran quickly, and surprisingly smoothly across the rough terrain, seeming completely unaffected by the bright sun light reflecting in their eyes off of the hot metal covering the ground. Cora, on the other hand, stumbled a lot, and was starting to fall behind. Astro noticed and immediately slowed down for her, but that didn’t help the situation. They both looked back to see that the robot army was actually keeping a fair pace with them. Cora’s shin throbbed from the night before, and it was slowing her down further. Beside her there was a hiss, and before she knew it, Astro had grabbed her hand, twirled her around in the air and threw her on his back, holding her thighs to keep her in place. All of this happened without him breaking stride.

“Whoa!” Cora yelped, wrapping her arms tightly around Astro’s neck, noticing that they were actually gaining speed rather than losing it. How the hell did he do that? She didn’t have time to ponder the question when a metallic screech sounded behind them. She just decided to hold on for dear life and hope they didn’t die. Then she proceed to curse herself as they came to a screeching halt at the lip of a deep crevasse that split across the never ending waste land. The way the sun hit it and the shadows engulfed it made it look bottomless, and it was far too wide for any sane person to try and jump. They looked left and right, but saw no end to the crack in the earth. She felt like all hope was lost, they were going to die. Then she felt Astro roll his shoulder and looked down to see him staring at the other side of the crevasse with determination. He backtracked then bent down to get a running start, and she realized that he was crazy.

“No, no, no, no, no! Don’t you dare take me down with your insanity!” She squirmed, but his grip was ridiculously strong and she couldn’t get down.

“Hold on tight.” Was all he said before he shot forward. She would have fallen backwards if she hadn't grabbed his neck in a chokehold, screaming. Then suddenly they were in the air, and she opened her eyes just in time to see them suspended above the darkness before they came crashing down on the other side. They were both torn apart from the other, tumbling in a painful roll as they crashed into the land on the other side of an impossible jump. They lay there for a moment, groaning, before sitting up and watching the robots on the other side come to a halt at the edge. Three robots decided to take the risk and attempted the jump, all of which fell sickeningly short and fell into the dark abyss. 

After a couple of surreal moments, both absorbing that they actually made that jump, and survived. They looked at each other, and then both started to chuckle. Then the chuckles morphed into laughs, hysterical laughs, but laughs nonetheless. The robots screaming on the other side of the ravine was just fueling their laughter. Astro jumped to his feet, pulling her to her feet as well, both still laughing as they ran away from the army of psychotic machines. They ran and ran, running till Cora’s legs gave out, and then they collapsed next to a mountain of trash, still giggling like maniacs. What neither of them noticed was that they were both holding hands throughout the whole experience.


End file.
